NAPAVINE — Josh Fay remarked after a 56-0 loss to Montesano last week that the Napavine Tigers were looking for someone to put on the cape and lead the team in the right direction following their third straight loss.
One week later, there’s no hero in sight.
The Adna Pirates stormed into Napavine Friday night and pulled off their first win in the rivalry in seven years and their first victory against the Tigers on the road in 14 years, prevailing 28-12. Napavine is now 1-4 and has suffered four straight defeats for the first time in Fay’s tenure.
“I think our kids are really excited. It’s really awesome to get a win. First league win against Napavine is pretty special,” Adna head coach Aaron Cochran said after the Central 2B League opener.
On the other sideline, Fay and the Tigers are looking for answers. Long after the Pirates had celebrated on the field with their families and classmates, the Tigers were still in the locker room. Coaches later held a closed-door meeting after the players departed.
“At some point, you’ve got to want it. You’ve got to hate losing, and we don’t hate losing yet,” Fay said. “Until that happens, then we’re probably going to [lose] a few more.”
Napavine, without senior quarterback Grady Wilson who left the Montesano game with a left shoulder injury, installed a run-dominant offensive package to ease new signal-caller Talon Tabor into the system. But it was Adna that struck first on offense, immediately cruising deep into Napavine territory on a Naillon Ramirez 50-yard run on the first snap.
Quarterback Trevin Salme capped off that opening drive with a 3-yard run, and the Tigers blocked the extra point. Napavine’s offense found a groove on its second possession thanks to a fourth-down conversion. Tabor’s first pass of the night found Masen Jeg for a touchdown, but the score was wiped away by an offensive holding penalty. On the next snap, Caleb Von Pressentin took it himself for the 19-yard touchdown to tie the game.
After the Tigers defense got a stop, Pono Moniz-Taitague fumbled on the first snap of their next drive to hand the ball right back to Adna, which took the lead with a Ramirez plunge from a yard out. A 10-play drive by Napavine failed to produce a score, and Adna finished the first half by silencing the Napavine crowd with a 27-yard touchdown pass from Salme to Cash Smith.
Adna gave Napavine a golden opportunity early in the third quarter when Oryn Nelson fumbled away what started as a productive catch and run. The Tigers immediately went backward on offense, with a skyscraping snap falling 15 yards back and another high snap on a fourth-down punt landed at the Napavine 3-yard line.
If that wasn’t the dagger in the Tigers’ hearts, a 2-yard touchdown run by Beau Miller midway through the third was. A third high snap ended up being more disastrous than the first two, landing in the back of the end zone for an Adna safety.
Not only did Wilson’s absence hurt the Tigers on offense, but he is also their long snapper. Those third-quarter high snaps directly led to 10 points for the Pirates.
“He fills a lot of holes for us,” Fay said of Wilson. “We just weren’t able to execute.”
Napavine put together a strong scoring drive early in the fourth, as Dean Hamilton finished a 12-play, 83-yard drive with a 3-yard score. But Adna senior linebacker Steven O’Dell picked off a Tabor pass as time expired to seal the historic victory for the Pirates.
“This is probably one of the biggest wins this program has ever seen. This is a huge step for us, showing that we’ve been building this team up throughout the past three years,” O’Dell said. “Our defense really showed up.”
Adna’s two-headed rushing attack with Miller and Ramirez kept the chains moving all night, and Salme’s accuracy (nine of 13 passing, 126 yards, one touchdown) was impressive. But for Cochran, the Pirates’ offensive success started up front.
“I learned that our offensive line has a little bit of grit,” Cochran said. “I feel like our offensive line controlled it. They did not start the year as well as they should have, and I think that step by step and day by day, we’re getting better. I’m really proud of them for that.”
One positive for Napavine is that Hamilton and Von Pressentin combined for 236 yards on the ground, but a lack of a passing threat and critical special teams errors doomed the Tigers.
“It’s the little things. You’ve gotta do the little things, and you’ve got to do them Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday,” Fay said. “You can’t just do them when a game rolls around. We’re going to focus on some basics. We’re going to make some offensive adjustments probably. Keep throwing stuff on the wall and eventually something will stick, and hopefully we can rattle off five wins in a row and see where we’re at.”
Adna will host Forks next Friday night, while Napavine will look to snap its losing streak against Raymond-South Bend.
